hypochondriac

Bump. Clubs continues failure to sign a centre forward has undoubtedly cost us more points again. Criminally neglegant to allow this to go on for this long.

Well that was largely crap. Good news is we aren't behind so time to improve.

Looked like a pen to me.

Absolutely. We've been so short in quality and a bit of x factor since the likes of Tadic, mane and even Boufal to an extent. I hope Orsic can give us a bit of that entertainment.

Boo Diallo. Come on lads let's win regardless.

Not sure I totally agree with you but nicely expressed. Glad you now recognise our need for a centre forward. I wish the club felt a similar way...

It's monumentally stupid. Why spend millions in other areas of the pitch where the need is not as great and then go two windows without addressing our fundamental problem? It makes no sense.

My thoughts are if our primary focus was getting in a striker he would have said that. Saying something like we might get a striker in or a wide player and that we have two good strikers at the club already does not fill me with confidence thst we are going all out to address our main problem.

There we go then. Setting us up for signing a non scoring winger and suggesting that's job done for the strikers.

Not sure I'd ever mentioned anything about the right wing. Whe I you see the formation like that you can see it more obviously. I'd say the rest of the team is OK but those two positions are the obvious weak points.

That highlights how weak we are still up top and right wing.

If we spend a load of money on a non-scoring attacking midfielder like Jackson and we don't strengthen sufficiently by signing a striker which it appears is what we may be doing, then it will be what I said.

Of course he was. Chez knows this too he's just being obtuse to have an argument online. In other news, Just seen that Jones is alluding to us not signing a striker and getting a wide attacker again. It seems very likely that this is what we will be going for which is idiotic and could cost us our place in the prem.

Nothing is a guarantee of success but in general, paying more for better players increases your chances. That's why better players tend to cost more. No one is saying we have to spend that much, just that in general that's probably the most we can afford and will give us a greater chance of signing the best possible player that we can afford in that position. Looks like Jones isn't going to sign a striker anyway so seems we will go again in the summer when it could be too late.

Might as well just do what we did in the summer then and not get anyone in if that's the attitude.

I agreed that he wasn't what we needed. I don't want us to sign him.

Can you really not see the difference between aiming lower than an unrealistic signing and aiming as low as someone like Mara to be our main striker? You can't possibly think that the club thought that's what they were buying when they brought him in? Absolutely nobody in the fanbase thought that was what was happening at the time. I know you're not stupid.

Well if you truly believe that Mara was the replacement for Broja then I really worry about the club and their sanity. Mara was clearly a young player with a bit of potential that replaced Long's position in the team, hence why he hasn't played much.

If we got someone in who had a similar impact to someone like Broja then id be more than happy but I'd expect us to be paying 25-30 million for our main striker which should be able to get us someone better than what we have at the moment and improve us. It's not my job to suggest potential targets that's for the club to sort out but it's clearly achievable. They only have to be better than Mara or Adams.

I agree but he's better than what we have at the moment.

What on earth are you talking about? Are you saying that in the past year there hasn't been a single suitable striker in our price range that wouldn't have been better than what we have and at least comparable to ings or Broja?

You honestly believe we signed Mara to be our main centre forward Ings replacement to lead the line and possibly replace Adams? Don't be ridiculous I know that you know that's absurd.

In what way is holding out for a top player that we don't get which leaves us with a gaping hole in the squad all season and possibly relegates us preferable to understanding that we may have to set out sights slightly lower to get someone achievable? Mara is r anywhere near the quality required but it's not simply a choice between not in any way suitable at the moment or signings that don't want to sign for us because they're too good as you are well aware. We need a replacement of the quality of Ings or at minimum Broja. That's obvious.

If true that he wasn't high on our list, they better hope we get in someone better...

I didn't say he was the only signing we should have signed, simply that it was clearly a choice to hold out in the summer in the hope that we would get players who then didn't want to sign. Personally I'd have prioritised getting a striker in possibly of a lower quality than those who rejected us anyway but it would have plugged a massive gap and clearly we could have got someone in who was superior to what we already have. All this is just words at the moment though as we've only got just over a week left of this window and we still haven't got one in.